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Editorial

More than a decade has passed and, outside my own work, can since the initial publication of Sweet be counted on one hand. For and Savage (2006), my monograph example, the deeply problematic on the cycle.1 Despite nature of the gendered aspects of the odd article here and there, and the mondo film has been exam- Kerekes and Slater’s groundbreak- ined by Gaia Giuliani in relation ing 1994 book on death in filmKill - to the ‘white heterosexual gaze’ Editorial ing for Culture, this study was the and the ‘imaginary’ of the Ital- first solely devoted to the subject ian nation during the 1960s and of the mondo cycle and my hope the 1970s, the high point of both Issue 88 was that it would instigate a wider mondo filmmaking and, arguably, discussion about this most contro- Italian cinema (2018). Sweet and Savage: The versial of film . Meanwhile, Marie-Aude Fouéré mondo film and its In the introduction to the book, has taken a highly controversial legacy I made the point that while the scene from and mondo film was a disreputable, Franco Properi’s (1966) obscure (or sub-genre of the as a starting point for investigat- By Mark Goodall, Guest Editor ) its influence ing contemporary remembrance could be evidenced in a wide vari- of the massacres that took place Editor-in-Chief ety of contemporary media arte- in Zanzibar in 1964 during the Daniel Lindvall, Skebokvarnsvägen 147, facts. Films such as Ron Fricke’s shooting of the film (Fouéré 2016). lgh 1201, 124 52 Bandhagen, Sweden Baraka (1992), TV shows such as These fascinating essays bring a [email protected] Striscia la notizia (1988–present) sober socio-political viewpoint to Co-Editor: Reviews, Book Reviews, an Italian parody of the news, the mondo film that is most wel- Interviews, Festival Reports Matthew Sorrento, Department of English/ print media such as the Benet- come. As mondo films have been Film and Media Studies, Rutgers ton group’s Colors magazine and continuously critiqued for being University-Camden, Camden, NJ 08102, US Bizarre, a sleazy cousin to National profoundly macho and deeply [email protected] Geographic, all held within them chauvinistic it is also very impor- Image Editor Travis Merchant the basic principle of the mondo tant to bring a wide variety of [email protected] aesthetic: to confuse reality with diverse perspectives to the debate. Contributing Editors fabrication (and to also confuse It is understandable that most Jacob Mertens both reality and fabrication). of the discussion on mondo cin- [email protected] I also explained that my study ema has centred around the Liza Palmer [email protected] of the mondo film would focus on ‘carnilvalesque’ nature of the films. Doug Bentin’s chapter on Per Linnertz three points: [email protected] mondo in (Bentin Christopher Sharrett 1. That mondo films are a pow- 2006) does an excellent job of sit- [email protected] erful and important aspect uating the films in the medium Tony Williams of film history. of spectacle. Jacopetti, Prosperi [email protected] 2. That much of today’s media and others have invented a twen- Layout Design output owes a debt to the tieth-century cinematic version John Teehan [email protected] aesthetics and politics of the of the staged fictions of the past, Cover Design mondo film. the mondo director’s predilection Alex Szumlas 3. That mondo films belong to for ‘sensational shock scenes’ (to [email protected] the ‘high’ genres of docu- quote the blurb from one mondo Copy Editor mentary and the practices poster), clearly being a modern, Emma Rhys and MPS Technologies of the avant-garde as much electronic version of the age-old Production Manager as to exploitation, trash and craving for illicit liaisons with Naomi Curston shock cinema. taboo subjects. Printed by CPI Antony Rowe It is, however, gratifying to Published by While Sweet and Savage addressed report that over a decade on from intellect www.intellectbooks.com these aspects in some depth, the Sweet and Savage new perspec- Cover image number of serious texts on mondo tives on the mondo film – through Naked Amazon (1955) cinema has remained modest a wide range of scholarly view-

4 | film international issue 88 Editorial Below Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)

points – are finally emerging. This and so it is right that neglected the director with that of the film is helping to lift the mondo film more extreme films from the material (Missero). from the ‘path-dependency’ of later period of mondo cinema The exotic dimension to mondo exploitation readings to its right- are elucidated (Gayraud and films, arguably one of their most ful place in the history of docu- Lachaud). Another contribution affective in terms of marketing mentary film practices. It is the argues the case for the Ameri- practices, is re-examined from a intention that the selection of can documentarian Arthur Davis refreshing non- perspec- essays in this special issue of Film to be reviewed as more than just tive via a study of the impact that International further illuminates a cinematic charlatan (generally mondo aesthetics had on Brazil- these trends. how he was represented in Sweet ian New Wave documentary cin- The texts included here there- and Savage) and his film Brutes ema (Cánepa and Caraça). As fore generally move away from and Savages (1977) to be looked Sexton argues in his contribution, the tradition of analysing the at with fresh eyes. The sexuality such exoticism also stretched to mondo film as simply another of mondo is tracked, but through the occult through witchcraft and genre to which sex and violence the lens of 1960s America (Wie- other cult practices (western and are attached to sell theatre tick- gand) and the various sex scan- non-western), a place where the ets. The essays proceed (more or dals that rocked in the late reactionary mondo film clashed less) chronologically beginning 1950s and the early 1960s (and with late 1960s revolutionary coun- with situating the mondo film that are represented in perhaps terculture – a match made in some within the post-war culture of the most famous and influential form of hell. Inexplicable though Italy and Italian ‘quality’ cinema film of that era Federico Fellini’s it may seem, the mondo film has (Previtali) and ending with an La Dolce vita [1960]). The confla- also influenced recent ‘found foot- examination of how the mondo tion of the media image of the age’ horror filmmaking (Brannan). film has surprisingly influenced, film celebrity with the aggressive The modern media world is for good or bad, contemporary nature of the mondo film director arguably still a . Atrocity Italian film practices (Tuan). (and his similarly sensationalist videos are now uploaded onto the Jacopetti and Prosperi are the ‘world-view’) offers an illuminat- Internet and circulated via social ‘superstars’ of mondo cinema ing way of linking the persona of media; TV schedules are packed

www.filmint.nu | 5 Editorial

with people doing repulsive things in far-off locations (or nearby fake References locations). There is a general scep- ticism about news media and the whole dubious concept of ‘fake Bentin, D. (2006), ‘Mondo Barnum’, news’ is sustained by reference to in G. D. Rhodes and J. P. Springer manipulations of the past. There- (eds), Docufictions, Jefferson: fore, as this collection of articles McFarland & Company, pp. 144–53. reflects, an antiquated now almost quaint set of documentary films Fouéré, M.-A. (2016) ‘Film as continues to shape the postmod- Archive: Africa addio and the ern world, J. G. Ballard’s ‘exhibition Ambiguities of Remembrance in of atrocities’ paraded across the Contemporary Zanzibar’, virtual and digital landscapes of Anthropologie Sociale (Social the twenty-first century. Anthropology), 24:1, pp. 82–96.

Giuliani, G. (2018), ‘Razza Cagna: Contributor's details Mondo Movies, the White Heterosexual Male Gaze, and the 1960s–1970s Imaginary of the Mark Goodall is a lecturer in film at Nation’, Modern Italy, 23:4, pp. the University of Bradford. His 429–44. research interests include cult, horror and experimental cinema, Kerekes, D. and Slater, D. (1994), popular music and the avant- Killing for Culture: An Illustrated garde, and the mondo films of the History of Death Film from Mondo to 1960s and the 1970s. His Snuff, London: Creation Books. publications include Sweet and Savage: The World Through the Shockumentary Film Lens (Headpress, Note [2006] 2017), Crash Cinema: Representation in Film (Cambridge Scholars, 2007), Gathering of the 1. A second revised edition of the Tribe: Music and Heavy Conscious book was published in 2017 by Creation (Headpress, 2013) and The Headpress. Beatles, or ‘The White Album’ (Headpress, 2018). He is the producer and director of the Holy Terrors (2017) and plays in the indie chamber folk band Rudolf Rocker.

6 | film international issue 88 Bioscope Making Movies in Africa 1899 to 1925 By Neil Parsons

Black and White Bioscope recovers a neglected chapter in the histories of world cinema and Africa. It tells the story of movie production in Africa that long predated the francophone African films and Nollywood that are the focus of most histories of this industry. At the same time as Hollywood was starting, a film industry in Southern Africa was surging ahead in integrating production, distribution and exhibition. African Film Productions Limited made silent movies using technical and acting talent from Britain, the United States and Australia, ISBN 978-1-78320-943-9 272 pp | £55, $80 as well as from Africa. These included not only the original ‘long trek Hardback | Fall 2018 movie’ and the prototype for the movies Zulu and Zulu Dawn but also the 274 x 240 mm first King Solomon’s Mines and the original Blue Lagoon, featuring African actors such as Goba, Tom Zulu and Msoga Mwana, who starred as the black revolutionary in Prester John. In this lavishly illustrated book, 50 movies are reconstructed with graphic photographs and plot synopses – plus quotations from reviews – so that readers can rediscover this long-lost treasure trove of silent cinema.

To order this book online visit our website: www.intellectbooks.com